Blame Game

Who's to blame if you like this cap?

This is the cap that I mentioned I was working on in "Denial... not a river in egypt".  As I mentioned there I've had this image saved for a little while now.  When I saw it, I just knew it would be perfect for Realfield.  The problem was getting the story out.  I knew that the skeleton of the story would involve a man who's wife was going around behind his back with another man.  When he finds out about it, either his wife or his wife's lover gives him an ultimatum.... change into a woman or leave.

Now I know this is far from an original idea.  I've read plenty of stories over at fictionmania that involved this idea, but if I can't write my own version of an already established story, then I might as well close up shop as I haven't had a truly original idea... well... ever.  It still bugged me that this seemed a rather well tread story, so I think I tried to be to clever at first. I tried to put a unique spin on it.

My first attempt involved a series of short letters from 'Tiffany' to his wife.  Something along the lines of "Honey, I'm sorry I couldn't sit quietly while James and you were making love.  I tried to not cry, but I'm sorry, it just hurts knowing that you were letting another man make love to you.  I promise that I'll do better next time".... short notes like that.  I think the reason I couldn't gain any traction on that idea was that I found it difficult to incorporate the image into one of the letters.  I generally like having the image be at the end of the story, but if it's in a letter, then the image is in the past.  Plus I knew I would have to give a reason why he was writing notes and not just talking to her.   Doing that would take some space away from the story.

So as that wasn't getting me anywhere I tried to just write it out from Tiffany's point of view.  This went a lot easier and lead to some pretty humiliating scenarios... like the shopping trip and the spanking.  But when I was done it just felt.... normal.  I think I could have published that version and been fairly happy with it, but I strived for more.  I knew I had told this kind of story recently from the Alpha Male's perspective, but I just didn't think that James would make a good narrator.  I more or less wanted him to be an innocent bystander.  Not just because I wanted to focus on Tiffany and his wife, but it felt a little more squirmy that he was doing this not for Tiffany, but for his girlfriend.

So I took the only avenute left... tell it from Tiffany's wife's perspective.  I left all the situations I had written from Tiffany's perspective, and just changed them to his wife's side of the story.

And I have to say, I'm rather happy with it.  Design wise, I think I really nailed it.  I don't often have the text box cover up quite that much of the photo.. at least not cover up one of the major players.  But the way the photograph is lit, I can both cover up the photo and still let the readers see the woman behind the text.